1. Field of the Invention
The present invention, in certain respects, relates to the field of graphical user interface. In other respects, the present invention relates to a method and system that creates a tree-style graphical representation that depicts interrelationships among a set of entities.
2. Description of Background Information
A tree-style representation can be used to describe hierarchical relationships. An example of a hierarchical relationship is a parent-child relationship. Entities connected by hierarchical relationships form a hierarchy, which can be depicted using a tree representation. For instance, directories in a computer file system form a hierarchy which can be unambiguously described by a tree representation.
A tree representation can be visualized in different ways. For example, each parent-child relationship can be expressed using an arrow linking the parent and the child, with arrow pointing at the child. Alternatively, left-indentation is also frequently used to visualize a hierarchical relationship in a tree representation. FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary tree-style graphical representation for a directory hierarchy of a computer file system, displayed, as a graphical user interface, on a computer monitor. In FIG. 1, the subdirectory in a hierarchical relationship (e.g., directory vs. subdirectory) appears left-indented from where its parent directory appears. For example, “FreeLane” in FIG. 1 is a subdirectory of “Program Files” and it is left-indented from where “Program Files” is displayed in the interface. In general, a tree representation can be used to describe hierarchical relationship among a set of entities. Such entities can be people (e.g., parents and children), directories on a computer file system, computer programs, organizations of government, and categories of books.
As shown in FIG. 1, the hierarchical relationships among different directories can be readily seen through a tree-style graphical representation. In addition, such a tree-style graphical representation also provides a means for a user to interactively manipulate the underlying hierarchy. For example, a directory in the hierarchy can be selected, for deletion, by simply clicking on the node that represents the directory. Therefore, a tree is an effective representation for hierarchical relationships. A tree-style graphical representation provides a useful means to manipulate or control a hierarchy.
There are non-hierarchical relationships. For example, data flow relation is not hierarchical. Different representations can be used to describe non-hierarchical relationships. For example, a block diagram can be used to depict data flow relationships among different functional units. FIG. 2 shows an exemplary block diagram, in which data flows between different functional units are described as the links between the functional blocks. For example, “2D Images” is flown from Image Acquisition Unit (a functional unit), where 2D images are acquired, to Image Processing Unit (another functional unit), where acquired 2D images may be processed.
The above tree representations do not depict non-hierarchical relationships such as the data flow among different entities within the hierarchy. Although existing block diagram techniques do show non-hierarchical relationships among entities, they do not depict the hierarchical relationships of those entities.